(EL PASO COUNTY, Colo.) — Joel Hollendorfer, who has been on trial for the murder of 19-year-old Kara Nichols more than a decade ago, was found guilty of manslaughter and tampering with evidence on Thursday, June 22.
Nichols was reported missing on Oct. 14, 2012, and her case went unsolved for nearly a decade, until a tip from Hollendorfer’s ex-wife led investigators to Nichols’ body in 2022, at a property in Black Forest where Hollendorfer and his parents lived for years.
Nichols, who was working as an escort at the time, apparently met Hollendorfer after he responded to one of her ads. In January of 2022, Hollendorfer’s ex-wife reached out to the FBI and told them Hollendorfer admitted he accidentally killed an escort he hired several years ago and had buried her body on his parents’ property on top of an old horse grave.
Advocates for Nichols said on Facebook that opening statements began in Hollendorfer’s murder trial on Tuesday morning, June 13, 2023 and that a verdict had been reached on Thursday, June 22.
Hollendorfer was facing multiple charges including First Degree Murder and Tampering With and Destroying Physical Evidence.
Sentencing for Hollendorfer will take place next month.
